CH 50

In this world, stamina foods were made exclusively from magic beasts and magic herbs. Thanks to the magic power stored inside them, people with a high affinity for magic used these energy-packed meals to ease their fatigue and build strength, and it wasn’t uncommon for the elderly to eat them to live longer and in good health.

That said, magic herbs were generally hideous. Thanks to the magic power stored inside them, they wiggled and wailed in spite of their plant-ness, making them seem more like animals. The plants of this world were also very colorful to boot – vividly colored trees and red grass were hardly strange here.

In the wooden bowl sitting before me, there was a bright blue soup. Some roots that looked like human hands rose from the murky base. From the smell, I could tell that he had mixed in mole garlic1 and flying mockingmermaids2.

Apparently, Fikar was worried about my cold and made a stamina meal to speed up my recovery.

“Th-Thank you…”

Its nutritional value was superb. The mental damage I took was equally exceptional.

I lifted the spoon to my mouth with my eyes shut, avoiding the visual assault of the blue food. It didn’t taste bad, but since it was a stamina dish, the taste was intense. It was like taking a punch to the gut, which had been weakened alongside the rest of my body.

Fikar, watching anxiously as I drank the soup, suddenly pulled a plant from a bag on the table. It promptly began shrieking, which made me jump.

“Whoa… there’s mandragrass3 too…”

Mandragrass was a magic herb that grew throughout the forest and shrieked whenever it sensed vibrations in the ground. It looked like a gray head of broccoli with a cylindrical stem and three long black spots that looked like an anguished face.

Even if it was a bit weird, it was so nutritious that the older townspeople claimed it could cure their ails if eaten raw. If powdered and made into a tea, it was good for stomachaches, diarrhea, high fever, and headaches, and if juiced and poured over clothes, it was good for bruises and minor burns. It was often said that doctors ran away when the mandragrass shrieked.

On the downside, if they weren’t shrieking when eaten, they would lose all of their flavor and nutritional value. Even in that case, it’d be pretty easy to find another one in the forest since they more or less let you know where they were once you got close enough.

Holding the mandragrass, Fikar patiently waited for me to finish the bowl of soup. As soon as it was empty, he thrust the mandragrass into my face and shook it to make it scream.

No, I get it. I know it’s nutritious.

But it’s really hard to think about eating a screaming plant.

“No… I already ate… … fine … No, I’ll eat it…”

I wonder how many people on Earth would’ve refused to eat this thing that stared at me with eyes full of concern.

I took a bite. The shrieking intensified as I bit down, then weakened and disappeared halfway through, adding to the guilt I felt.

The taste wasn’t particularly peculiar, comparable to a pear without sugar, so why was it so hard to eat?…

“Th-Thanks for the meal… Fikar… what are you trying to feed me?…”

Live water scorpions4, kinobori rabbit eyeballs, sobbing walnuts5…

All of them were high-quality stamina foods, but they were also among the most repulsive.

As I slowly backed away from a nodding Fikar, someone rapped on the door with gusto. What a godsend!

“Sumire! I heard you’re bedridden with a cold?! I brought some food over!”

It was Mesil-san, the wife of Branch Manager Gartis-san, who entered with a bang. As it would seem, on the way to the doctor’s place, Fikar had stopped by the guild to tell them that neither of us would be working today.

Mesil-san was carrying a large basket in her strong arms. Under the cloth that covered the basket, I could make out the outlines of a small pot and several ordinary fruits.

“Fikar, you’ll make the poor girl worse by feeding her this stuff! It’s just a cold – she’ll get better if she eats something easy on the stomach and goes to bed!”

Being scolded so bluntly, Fikar looked uncharacteristically depressed.

“Umm… Fikar prepared this for me so…”

“So you ate all this thick, stomach-churning soup? You’re sick and if you don’t take care of yourself, you won’t heal properly!”

Telling me that, Mesil-san swiftly cleared the other stamina foods from the table. She told me to take some medicine and instructed Fikar to either eat or somehow store the remaining soup and ingredients. Once he was done with that, she lined the fruits she’d brought over on the table and asked Fikar to heat the pot for later.

“Sumire, if your stomach’s settled, get some rest. Otherwise, things might get uncomfortable.”

“I will…”

“I’ll get you a couple more days off just in case. If this keeps up for too long, make sure to call the doctor again.”

After coaching Fikar on the basics of taking care of a sick person, Mesil-san left without any goodbyes. As I tried to get up, Fikar grabbed me and carried me to bed, tightly wrapping me in my blankets once more.

I looked up at Fikar’s expressionless yet somehow dejected face and held his hand.

“I’m happy you’re doing your best for me, Fikar, thank you. I’ll rest well and get better soon, okay?”

Fikar squeezed my hand back and rubbed against me more reservedly than usual. He must’ve smelled the sweat I’d been releasing because of my fever.

Feeling the heat of Fikar’s big hand against my head, I fell asleep.

Fluffy, warm, and soft.

It was soft to the touch, like the blanket I used when I was younger.

I grabbed the pink and orange checkered blanket and saw Mom watching me anxiously. She wiped the sweat off my forehead and replaced it with fresh ice.

I told her my throat hurt, and she made me a hot cup of honey water.

It was a cup with my favorite character on it. The sweet taste of the spoon she fed me with so that I wouldn’t spill it all over myself…

I opened my eyes. It was dark.

The hand stroking my forehead, as if to measure my fever, noticed that I was awake and turned on the bedside lamp.

“Fi, ka, r…”

Fikar stared at my face, put his ear next to my throat, then slowly woke me up. I was still dazed, but he took my hand and guided it towards a steaming mug.

It was hot honey water.

Was it this scent that reminded me of Mom?…

I slowly tipped the mug and let the sweet, warm liquid trickle down my throat. It felt slightly refreshing, probably because he’d used fairy mint6 honey.

I drank half of it and returned the mug to Fikar, who gently lay me back down. My body felt fuzzy and unstable. I saw Fikar’s shadow swaying in the small light and reached out.

“Wait… please stay with me for a little longer…”

He nodded and slid his hand under my body, moving it back as he slipped into bed with me.

I wanted to say, “You don’t have to be so close,” but my mouth didn’t move and I just stared up at him as he did the same to me. Catching the light from the lamp, Fikar’s hair was glowing.

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TL Notes:

1: モグラニンニク (mo-gu-ra-ni-n’-ni-ku), from 土竜 (mo-gura, with characters meaning “earth dragon”) which especially refers to the Japanese mole, and ニンニク or 大蒜 meaning “garlic”.

2: トビニンギョモドキ (to-bi-ni-n’-gui-yo-mo-do-ki), from 飛び (to-bi) meaning “flying”, 人魚 (ningyo) literally meaning “fish-human” and being a demon from Japanese folklore, 擬き (modo-ki) meaning “imitation” or “pseudo-“.

3: シンセツソウ (shi-n-se-tsu-so-u), from 親切 (shinsetsu) meaning “kindness” or “gentleness”, and そう (so-u) meaning “seems like”. Seems-Kindness and fool’s kindness sound strange to me, so I chose the name from the manga TL instead.

4: ミズサソリ (mi-zu-sa-so-ri), from ​​水 (mizu) meaning “water”, and 蠍 (sasori) meaning “scorpion”.

5: ススリナキクルミ (sa-sa-ri-na-ki-ku-ru-mi) from すすり泣く (sa-sa-ri-na-ki) meaning “to sob”, and 胡桃 (kurumi) meaning “walnut”.

6: ヨウセイハナハッカ (yo-u-se-i-ha-na-ha-k-ka) from 妖精 (yousei) meaning “fairy”, and 花薄荷 (hanahakka) meaning “oregano”, which is a type of mint.

7: Please tell me if the way I place footnote/TLN markers is annoying or distracting when reading. I like making the notes above to see where the names come from, but I don’t expect everyone to share that interest.

8: I prefer the manga’s execution of the bedridden scenes at the end of this chapter, especially since they were used to show character growth in both Sumire and Fikar. It’s only natural because the manga is more heavily edited than the web novel, and I can’t complain too much anyway since it’s still cute~